Economy in Brief

Consumers remained in a somber spending mood last week. Sales at chain stores slipped 0.1% after the earlier week's 3.2% decline. The average level was the lowest since last February. During the last ten years there has been a 66% [...]

Maybe the rate of increase slowed, but the direction of change in energy prices remains the same - higher. Last week, the pump price for regular gasoline rose another penny to $3.10 per gallon following the prior week's two cent rise. [...]

Severe snow storms just after Christmas dealt another setback to new housing activity last month Total housing starts fell 4.3% in December to 529,000 (AR) units from 553,000 during November, initially reported at 555,000. The latest [...]

The National Association of Home Builders reported that their index of housing market activity held at 16 for the third consecutive month; the average for all of 2010. The latest figure remained above the all-time low of 8 reached in [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions improved to 11.92 following its sharp December recovery to a revised 9.89. The figure roughly equaled Consensus [...]

The German financial experts that respond to the Zew survey are a bit more upbeat this month. The expectations reading jumped quite a number of notches from a December value of 4.3 to a January reading of 15.4. Still, expectations [...]

After several months of strong gain, the rate of business inventory accumulation slowed to 0.2% in November after a 0.8% October increase, initially reported at 0.7%. During the last three months inventories rose at a 9.5% annual rate [...]

After several months of strong gain, the rate of business inventory accumulation slowed to 0.2% in November after a 0.8% October increase, initially reported at 0.7%. During the last three months inventories rose at a 9.5% annual rate [...]